"You have a great ear for oratory, Alaïs," Kata says, removing a slim, soft black leather case from her pack. "You would be a fine elegist. And Venelle, do not worry, no offense taken. In a way, those days spent with Caith prepared me to put her to rest today. I am grateful."
Kata leans in close to the lock, and slides two small picks to the lock. Closing her eyes, Kata twists and probes the lock, her brow furrowed in focus, waiting for the click that will mean the puzzle is solved...
Kata is able to effortlessly not only pick the lock, but silently dismantle it and take it for herself, if she chooses.
Broccan moves up behind Kata. "Y' wan' me t'open'eh door? I'll go in firs'."
"You want me to open the door? I'll go in first."
Edrukk raises an eyebrow at the theatrics.
“Much obliged,” Alaïs smiles back to Kata, before quickly tapping a pauldron of her armour as she invokes her illuminating cantrip, guessing that the resident necromancer likely doesn't keep empty rooms lit while he lurks elsewhere.
And then she nods her agreement to Broccan, moving to take the other leaf of the double doors. “On three?”
And together, the elf and human throw open the doors.
Broccan throws open the door.
Furniture fragments, smashed planks, broken glass, and other detritus cram this large antechamber. At the west end of the room, several upended tables form a crude barricade. There is one door on the northern wall.
Crouched behind the makeshift barricade are three shadowy shapes. There is a rattling of bone on bone, a clinking of metal, and the tautening of crossbow strings.
Quick as a flash, Venelle rushes into the room, nocks an arrow, and lets it fly at the head of one of the concealed skeletons. Her aim is flawless, but the arrow only bounces off the undead horror's skull. "Uhh, arrows don't do much!" she calls back.
The skeletons open fire, splitting their focus between the first creature to enter the room and the first creature to open the door. Broccan takes a bolt to the shoulder, and Venelle takes a shallow hit to her leg. They both feel a painful tingling, however, as if something worse than iron has entered their bloodstream. After this, the skeletons drop those crossbows and hoist up second identical pre-loaded crossbows beside them.
Weakened: A character weakened by Strength poison suffers a –2 penalty on Strength-based attack rolls, damage rolls, skill checks, and ability checks. Her carrying capacity is divided by 3. She is always considered to be carrying at least a medium load.
Edrukk moves into the room and takes a defensive stance.
Broccan steps forward into the room, side-by-side with Edrukk, and takes a defensive posture.
Kata watches the warriors carefully, following behind them and slipping into the room. She is less than graceful, however, and her inexperience shows; she stumbles over the rubble in the room, sliding on scree, unsteady on her feet. As she goes, a poem about death rises to her mind, accompanied by the thought, Caith, are these your family?
"There is no night without a dawning
No winter without a spring
And beyond the dark horizon
Our hearts will once more sing…"
As Broccan opens the door to be met with a flight of crossbow bolts, Alaïs peers around the door frame as most of the others rush in, trying to see who the shooters are. The skeletons, in cover, no less, and in a room messy enough to make maneuvering obnoxious, are an extremely unwelcome start to her morning.
She follows her friends, already rather cross with this Filge creature, and as the wreckage on the floor leaves her feet uncharacteristically awkward, a macabre thought flashes across her thoughts.
“Bad word / or bad deed / unpunished invites grief / Here’s / Rawhead and Bloodybones,” she chirps, the idea skittering uneasily against Kata's song as Alaïs' words drop into a strangely staccato rhythm to match her own jerky movements instead.
Briar conjures her shadow armor and otherwise stays back for the moment. ”I’ll follow you in when there’s more room. Poison is particularly bad for me.”
Venelle looses two more arrows, but these skeletons seem exceptionally nimble, and only her second hasty shot connects. This arrow, though, splinters right into the skeleton's collerbone, and the skeleton collapses as its animating magic wavers and fails.
The remaining skeletons, unfazed by their destroyed comrade, fire their second crossbows with a rattling of bones and a twanging of strings.
Impaired: A character impaired by Strength poison experiences rapid muscle atrophy. She takes an additional –2 penalty on the affected Strength-based rolls, and is always considered to be carrying at least a heavy load.
Alaïs scrambles across the room over the rubble, looking for an angle that leaves sightlines open for the others, bracing herself behind her shield. Drawing in a breath, she releases a frightful shout that batters at the nearest skeleton.
Broccan feels the envenomed bolt start to weaken him, and his pack suddenly feels uncomfortably heavy. He unshoulders his pack of gear and hurls it at the nearest skeleton .
Both Alais's and Broccan's attacks collide with one of the barricading tables, splintering the brittle wood.
Alais's spell strikes her target dead-on, causing its skull to splinter and crack.
Edrukk tucks in firmly behind his shield, not bothering to look for a target, and runs in the the barricade, leading with his shield and hoping to push the table back against the wall and maybe catch a skelly or two behind it.
Stopped short, he starts moving his shield back and forth in front of the skeletons to block any further shots they might have. "If'n yer ready t' take yer shot, lemme know so's Ah can duck down."
With the skeletons behind the tables, Kata knew it would be beyond her ability to stab them, so instead, perhaps a metaphorical stabbing - with magic - might work? The elegist unleashes another wordless scream, targeting the same skeleton that Alaïs just had.
Briar moves in after the others, charging up a healing spell for the wounded Broc. ”Don’t be worrying. Much more where that came from so.”
The skeleton rattles, but seems to barely withstand Kata's spell.
Venelle fires two more arrows at the injured skeleton. The second clips its shoulder, breaking off a large shard of bone which flies and embeds in the wall behind it. The undead creature staggers, but remains standing.
Having grabbed their rusting scimitars, the skeletons rise to their feet to engage Broccan and Edrukk. One rises so that the table only partially protects it, while the other clatters outside the defenses entirely. The skilled fighters easily avoid being slashed by the shoddy weaponry.
Recalling how much more effective his bare knuckles were against the owlbear skeleton than a blade, Broccan engages the skeleton with his fists.
Alaïs darts along the edge of the room, drawing her sword as she goes and as she sizes up the obstacle between her and the nearer skeleton. She slots herself into place beside Edrukk, hoping that while her chosen weapon might be less effective against such a foe, she might be able to set up an opening for her dwarven compatriot.
Kata wasn't skilled enough with weaponplay to do much against such nimble enemies, but she could perhaps help those more skilled than her. The elegist shoves her longspear towards the skeleton on the other side of Broccan trying to pin the monstrosity in place enough for the bar brawler to land a blow.
”Attaboy, come out ‘n play.”
The dwarf raises his dwarven waraxe in an obvious threat before slamming his shield into his bony foe.
Kata pins the thrashing skeleton in place just long enough for Broccan to shoulderslam it, shattering it into pieces with one clean blow.
One skeleton remains.
Briar gives Broc some guidance to overcome the poison coursing in his system then steps up behind Ed.
Venelle rushes up close, taking advantage of the skeleton having partially emerged from cover to fire a arrow at it point-blank. The skeleton, hampered by the table, can't quite get its sword up in time to punish the archer, but it still manages to startle her enough to flub the shot.
The final skeleton, heedless of its impending destruction, swings its scimitar down at Edrukk. Edrukk effortlessly knocks the blow aside, practically shattering the scimitar in the process.
Slipping in behind Venelle, Kata again plunges her spear at the remaining skeleton, again trying to pin it in place for her comrades.
Broccan steps over the fallen skeleton and attempts to shift or pull down the barricade.
As Broccan moves to disassemble the barricade from one end, Alaïs does her best to vault over the other to deny the last skeleton its cover.
Despite the weight of her armour and the way her shield gets in the way, the elf lady's heritage serves her well, and dropping down on the other side of the barrier, she promptly whirls to batter at the undead thing with her shield.
Even after Broccan has wrenched away the barricade for good, the skeleton nimbly fends off attacks from Venlele, Alais and Edrukk, moving with unsettling grace to dodge and parry blows. The necromancer plied his trade well.
Briar passes on a bit of the Lady’s guidance onto Edd next.
With the final skeleton fully exposed, Venelle eagerly looses several shots.
The skeleton slices one of the arrows right out of the air with a grin. It tries to take advantage of the fumbling archer's sudden vulnerability, but Edrukk is able to push in and force its opportunistic attack wide.
Its pot shot denied, the skeleton swings mindlessly at Edrukk--and scores a vicious cut across the dwarf's shoulder that pulls open and bleeds freely as Edrukk raises his shield too late.
Edrukk grits his teeth and strikes back.
Pushing through the pain, Edrukk shoves forward with his shield and brutally smashes the skeleton to pieces.
Broccan looks down at the scattered bones. "D'ye think these'r Caith's fam'ly? Ow can we tell one skel'ton from'eh'nother?"
[b]"Do you think these are Caith's family? How can we tell one skeleton from another?"
“Maybe a healer would know? Or, we could keep a count, see how many horrors this monster has animated?” Alaïs offers over her shoulder, as she hurries back to the door to the next room, and tries to throw it open.
“Otherwise, we’ll have to hope he’s marginally reasonable if we get him at swordpoint.”
She’s clearly distracted.
Edrukk will use his fervor to cast a healing spell on himself before following.
To answer Broc’s question, Briar takes a look at the skeletons to see if she can tell anything about them.
She immediately realizes that she does, in fact, not know the difference between various sets of bones.
”Wouldn’t know one person’s bones from Aroden’s meself. Only deaduns I’ve seen still had the skin on them so.”
She offers Edd another guidance before moving on. ”Last one worked well for ye, so let’s have another.”
Alaïs spares a glance at the bones mercifully no longer standing in ways skeletons shouldn't, but poets' and amateurs' grasp of anatomy is even more approximate than visual artists'.